"I was leaving work and it just seemed ridiculous to pay $850 a week for an average three-bedroom rental when a mortgage on a much nicer house here was heaps less.
"Plus trips to and from work were 10 minutes door to door, not an hour or more. Everything had been starting to feel like a battle.
"It seems those migrating to Tauranga have one thing in common: They want their time back," Vass wrote.
Sue Leech said she moved back to her hometown, Christchurch, 11 months ago and was missing the milder winter temperatures and family but was happy about the move.
"I have managed to buy a home and my mortgage repayments are less than double the cost I was paying in rent in West Auckland.
"I can afford to have a life, go out for dinner and have a weekend away now and then," Leech said.
Frank Siermans, now living in Central Otago, also misses family but doesn't miss the traffic or Phil Goff's "money wasting" council.
Melanie Sharma-Barrow moved to Auckland in late 2015 and says there are so many things you can do that don't require much money.
"Going to fantastic parks, spending the day on a beach anywhere that there is one and I see lots of people fishing as families," she said.
But in her short time at the city, she's noticed a mistreatment of Pacifica and Asian people and says the city can do better.
"I heard negative comments in public against these people and you can see that the children, in some cases are born into a system that isn't geared to their culture."
Others want the Auckland Council to get back to basics and to spend money on things that the city and its residents desperately need.
"Instead of spending $100m on a rich man sport and another million on probably a grotesque statue, why not spend it on footpaths and road repairs.
"I hope someone is keeping track of the petrol tax income and where that is being spent," one added.
